ith Bedford Main Street currently without a director, a local orchardist has stepped in to reorganize the Bedford Farmers Market.

Along with being a son of a multi-generation Bedford County farm family, Ronnie Gross is also one of the farmer representatives on the county’s agribusiness board. Along with being part of the family orchard business, he has Mountain Valley Produce LLC, a wholesale company that distributes to restaurants and stores.

A lot of churches build additions or new sanctuaries, but the new sanctuary that Grace Memorial Baptist Church dedicated this month is something different.

Grace Memorial is a country church, located on Robertson Road, off Dickerson Mill Road, but what was built doesn’t look like what comes to mind when you think of a country church. The 500 seat sanctuary, and the building that houses it, looks more like what you would expect a suburban congregation to build.

An Army Reserve unit in Greensboro left for Fort Dix, N.J., last month, to prepare for duty in Iraq.

Major Timothy Brooke, the company commander, is no stranger to Iraq. Brooke, who normally wears the uniform of the Bedford Police Department, returned early last year from a deployment there, where he served as “mayor” of Freedom Compound in Baghdad.

Along with Bedford Domestic Violence Services, there is another group dealing with the problem of domestic violence.

The Bedford Domestic Violence Coalition isn’t a competing organization. In fact, Bedford Domestic Violence Services is part of the Coalition. Its goal is to bring individuals, direct service providers and organizations together in a collaborative effort.

Individuals may be professionals, such as forensic nurses, employees of the victim/witness program or social workers.

Jimmy Overstreet had planned on a Navy career when his father, W. R. Overstreet started a general repair business in 1959. He was a diesel mechanic and had served on a destroyer escort, which was all diesel. This was followed by duty on the USS Ranger, an aircraft carrier.

Overstreet was a plank owner on the Ranger, the title that members of a ship’s commissioning crew are known by.

The Blue Ridge Garden Club celebrated its 80th anniversary with a luncheon and plant sale that drew 200 people.

The lunch and plant sale is an annual event, something the club has done for 50 years. The lunch menu has changed little over the years and, as usual, everything was made by club members, including the biscuits for the ham biscuits. Members sign up every year as to what they will make and most have a specialty.

Lauri Bach, of Many Blessings Farm, braced herself for some bad news when a veterinarian asked her this question last month. The horse in question is named Copper – he got his name due to his color. He means a great deal to Bach for several reasons.

To begin with, he was an 8-year-old girl’s dream. He was 2 years old when they bought him for their daughter, Lindsay, who had just turned 8.

George Nester, Bedford County’s director of community development, is leaving for Halifax County. He takes over as that county’s administrator next month.

Nester worked as town manager of Vinton for seven years and also as city manager of Covington. He was Franklin County’s county administrator for eight years before taking up his current job in Bedford County.

When Craig Amo first opened Cup-a-Joe at the end of 2005, he did so knowing that Bedford was still suffering withdrawal symptoms from the closing of R-U-Up, a popular coffee shop. R-U-UP closed in May of that year.

The Blue Ridge Garden Club held a potting party last week. This, however, wasn’t something Sheriff Brown was worried about. It was perfectly legal.

The club decided to celebrate its 80th anniversary with a new approach to the annual spring fundraiser. Part of this is to sell container gardens. The potting party was a gathering of club members to create these gardens. They come in various sizes, each in a ceramic container, and the club’s master gardener members helped design them. No two are alike.

Back in October, 1942, a young man from Brooklyn named Angelo Basile, received a written invitation from the U. S. Army to personally participate in World War II.

Basile ended up in the 80th Infantry Division, nicknamed “Blue Ridge Division.” Its division patch, which Basile wore on his dress uniform, featured three bluish mountains. Today, he lives among those mountains. He and his wife, Mary, reside with their son, Philip, on the Bedford County side of Smith Mountain Lake.

ne of Bedford County’s premier historic jewels, Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, opens for a new season today. Governor Tim Kaine will be on hand for this year’s event.

Long before he became our third president, Thomas Jefferson became governor of Virginia, serving as its first governor after the Old Dominion joined 12 other colonies in declaring their independence from Great Britain. The state house where Virginia’s General Assembly still meets today was designed by Jefferson.

Although all county elementary schools participated in the Young Authors contest, Body Camp Elementary did something different.

Brenda Dooley, the school’s reading coach, found a company that offered a kit that allowed winning stories to be turned into a bound book. Dooley took the children’s manuscripts and typed them leaving room for artwork. The children then drew pictures to illustrate their books. This took a good bit of time, but Dooley feels it was worth it and hopes to do it again next year.

Two old friends have joined up to bring a new food experience to Smith Mountain Lake.

Benjamin McGehee and Matt White, owner of Mariner’s Landing, have been friends for 30 years, ever since they played Little League baseball together. When White needed somebody to take over the food service at The Pointe at Mariner’s Landing, he thought of McGehee. McGehee started Benjamin’s Great Cows and Crabs in Forest several years ago.